Upcoming fixtures ‘massive’ for Thatcham Town, says manager Yashwa Romeo

Thatcham town lost 4-0 away to Melksham Town on Saturday, following a week of goalkeeper roulette.

Callum Smart was recalled by Gosport Borough, after which he departed his parent club too.

He’d made twelve appearances for Thatcham this season in all competitions, leaving manager Yashwa Romeo with something of a dilemma.

This was worsened when Smart’s replacement, returning Reading loanee James Sharlott, was unable to feature in the Berks & Bucks Cup against Berks County FC in midweek.

In came Paul Strudley to make a heroic cameo appearance.

1,478 days since his last Thatcham appearance, the fan favourite helped his side to a 3-1 win.

“Reading play a youth team in the Berks & Bucks, so they didn’t want James to be cup tied,” said Romeo.

“I’ve played against Struds multiple times in my career, so I reached out to see if he could do us a favour.

“James is very good. In his first game he was absolutely superb.

“He’s got a chance, being at Reading. His distribution is absolutely brilliant.

“Being so young, he’s a little bit less vocal, but that will come in time.”

Sharlott was back in goal for Thatcham’s trip to Melksham on Saturday, but won’t have enjoyed his afternoon as his side lost 4-0.

Sam Hendy opened the scoring for Melksham, before Jake Brown and Ralph Graham struck to make it 3-0 at the break.

Jake Andrews’ Panenka penalty wrapped things up at 4-0, leaving Thatcham second from bottom.

“In reality 4-0 doesn’t reflect the game,” Romeo said.

“It was a very even game until they scored, and we had chances that we should have scored before they did.

“At the minute, we’re not scoring and other teams are.

“They’re a very direct team and we dealt with that. We’ve improved in getting behind teams, creating chances and spaces.

“We just switched off for five minutes twice. You get punished for it.

“It wasn’t a disappointing performance, but it was a disappointing result.

“There’s not much more I can ask from them, we go again, the next three games are massive for us and we need to pick up points from them.”